coopers stout tips please

[farmhousekeg]

.......its a bit tangy but thats i guess too immature yet but i cant wait to keg and drink when its matured for a few days.

Embalmer, if you can, take it easy in the early days/weeks. I am nearing the bottom of my keg after 5 weeks of rationing and the taste of the "black gold" I am enjoying now is unrecognisable compared to the stuff I drank happily in the early days. It really has matured into something you would be happy to pay a few quid for in the pub! Mine was made with 1kg of DSM and kegged at 1014.

[mattwatts]

.......its a bit tangy but thats i guess too immature yet but i cant wait to keg and drink when its matured for a few days.

Embalmer, if you can, take it easy in the early days/weeks. I am nearing the bottom of my keg after 5 weeks of rationing and the taste of the "black gold" I am enjoying now is unrecognisable compared to the stuff I drank happily in the early days. It really has matured into something you would be happy to pay a few quid for in the pub! Mine was made with 1kg of DSM and kegged at 1014.

Did you prime it? I only ask as Ditch doesn't and I'm just about to keg/bottle mine and I still haven't decided whether or not to prime or bottle vs. keg.

Yours indecisively....

[farmhousekeg]

.......its a bit tangy but thats i guess too immature yet but i cant wait to keg and drink when its matured for a few days.

Embalmer, if you can, take it easy in the early days/weeks. I am nearing the bottom of my keg after 5 weeks of rationing and the taste of the "black gold" I am enjoying now is unrecognisable compared to the stuff I drank happily in the early days. It really has matured into something you would be happy to pay a few quid for in the pub! Mine was made with 1kg of DSM and kegged at 1014.

Did you prime it? I only ask as Ditch doesn't and I'm just about to keg/bottle mine and I still haven't decided whether or not to prime or bottle vs. keg.

Yours indecisively....

Yes, I primed mine with about 3 oz of granulated sugar in the keg but as this is the first time I made Coopers Stout I have nothing to compare against. Anyway, the kit says to prime it so who am I to argue?! I'd follow the instructions and then you have a benchmark against which to judge any future attempts when you might want to fiddle around with some variations.

[mattwatts]

That's what I thought, I'll prime it and bottle or keg it later.

Thanks

[THE EMBALMER]

hello guys just popped mine into a budget keg tonight i was thinking shall i shant i prime so went half way and put 5 table spoons of spraymalt in now i will have to wait a while for it to mature, i am looking forward to having a few scoops

[Operator]

After a few days in the keg I decided I should stick some in a bottle for a mates house warming. Obviously I had to try a glass at the same time, I was amazed, it's so good even after only a few days. I just read farmhousekeg's post and I'll try and restrict myself!

Embalmer, I primed with 80g of glucose and it's very explosive out of the tap, I expect it to calm down when I stick it in the cool to clear for a bit, if I can bring myself to hide it away that is...

[Ditch]

I was amazed, it's so good even after only a few days.

Oh yee of little faith!

What did ye expect, after all I've told ye!

[RatboyOllie]

stop it now chaps, im desperately trying to condition mine and leave it untouched to witness this "black gold" first hand. Not sure how much longer i can wait when you lot keep tryin a bit..... cmon fellas, help a ratboy out and leave yours alone too otherwise i just dont have the will power !

Ditch, you ever had a keg of Coopers talk to you? im certain mine keeps calling me from the spare room, reckon Im gonna have to banish her to the garage soon but i dont really want her to get too cold or lonely, maybe i'll wrap her in a blanket and leave the radio on and sit her next to an empty keg..................

right, im unsubscribing from these forums immediately

[Operator]

Oh yee of little faith!

What did ye expect, after all I've told ye!

Sorry Ditch, you're right! I should have known. As I'm still new to all this, every brew surprises me with how good it is. Compared with the awful homebrew of my youth, these are superb and the coopers is the best of the bunch.

Judging by RatBoyOllie's post Coopers Stout effects the mind even before drinking! Powerful stuff, I better get another brew on.

[RatboyOllie]

im still resisting temptation, but........

is there anyway i can ensure my Coopers is of the flatter variety without it goin off. Its primed and in a pressure keg so im guessin that its creating co2 and that is goin in the liquid but also protectin it from oxidising. However, i like my pint of stout without bubbles if at all possible, is it ok to let the co2 out of the pressure release valve or is that a non starter

how do i make it less carbonated but make sure it lasts a while too, is it possible?

cheers chaps

[THE EMBALMER]

drink it! drink it!!!!

could not contain my self i am afraid had a few glasses and will have some more before bo peeps. nice is an understatement ha.
bit tired and just had a little accident i was filling a half pint sized glass nice and steady opening the tap a small amount plenty of pressure but ..here we go turned the bloody tap the wrong way !!shit theres some pressure in ,bit of a mess oops.
i am not thinking farmhouse keg that this will last a month or so to mature, i might pop some into a bottle and hide it for a while and knock some more up.. just took delivery of a dalex tap was thinking of replacing the original barrel ,has any one done this ??
cheers guys and ollie get stuck in lad dont be shy lol glyn

[Trough Lolly]

I'm truly impressed with all the +ve feedback on this thread. Amazingly enough, I was in email contact with Paul Burge at Coopers earlier today on another matter and I've told him how well the Stout kit is going down in the old dart...Perhaps I should hop on a plane with a few boxes of the kits for, er, promotional purposes!!

Cheers,
TL

[farmhousekeg]

im still resisting temptation, but........

is there anyway i can ensure my Coopers is of the flatter variety without it goin off. Its primed and in a pressure keg so im guessin that its creating co2 and that is goin in the liquid but also protectin it from oxidising. However, i like my pint of stout without bubbles if at all possible, is it ok to let the co2 out of the pressure release valve or is that a non starter

how do i make it less carbonated but make sure it lasts a while too, is it possible?

cheers chaps

Don't worry RBO, I don't think you'll find it fizzy - the CO2 will just ensure you get a nice head on it, but open the tap slowly to keep it under control. Also as you start to empty the barrel you will lose some pressure until you top up with CO2. Are you using a top or a bottom tap on your keg? If you have a top tap of course you'll need to keep pressure in there to get the beer out. Also with a bottom tap you need a wee bit of CO2 on top to stop it glugging air in via the tap as the level in the barrel drops. I used a bottom tap keg for mine and have topped up the CO2 as I have drunk it and there's no way I would describe the beer itself as fizzy or over carbonated so I think you'll be fine.

[Ditch]

Farmhouse has it in one No way would I be drinking 'fizzy beer'. I loathe the stuff. And this is why I wouldn't thank ye for a lorry load of top tapped kegs of any description either. Fine for lager drinkers, I s'pose. But so is paint stripper, most likely!

I find a one second burst (Saying the word " Kangaroo " takes one second. Pretty apt, as we're dealing with an ozzie brew here) out of the HB cylinder is plenty enough to make a five gallon basic barrel spurt out a jet of foam at the least over opening of the tap. But, even then, if ye just walk away and let that foam settle into beer? No way do ye end up with a fizzy drink.

I've no experience of different levels of carbonation through priming with sugars, simply because I don't do that. I'd doubt that would make ye Coopers fizz either though. Bottling it? Sacrilege! That'd surely make it pop and fizz? Urgh!

TL; Just you make sure ye touch down with that glorious cargo at Shannon, not bloody Gatwick! And, if ye in touch with Paul Burge? Do me a favour and ask him if he, or anyone in his family, has any interest in their Genealogy. It's crippling me to know the name has reached Australia and I'd dearly love to get a hook on it. (For once in my life I'm being absolutely serious there too )

[RatboyOllie]

cheers chaps, im using a top tap keg, not really through choice or preference, i bought it before i knew what i was doing on reccomendation from the lhbs. It'll be the first brew to come out of it and the first Coopers Stout ive done so I am trying to resist suppin early so i can witness how good this stuff is, i will report back once ive tasted some. I guess ive got about 40 pints of the stuff though so maybe a couple of "tasters", purely for later comparison purposes would be acceptable, if not a necessity.......

Ive got a bottom tap keg too but no co2 valve, just a basic cap. i will invest at some point just difficult with it being xmas and before payday. We'll see.

i will leave it another week and then take a "sample"

cheers again fellas, top thread and incredibly helpful for us newbies !